


Of Black Cats and Ladybugs

by LittleMissWolfie



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Adrien is rebelling to get back at his crappy dad, Adrien starts following Marinette around like a lost kitten, F/M, Marinette writes stories online, Neither of them have friends really, Non-superhero AU, bad boy!Adrien, shy!Marinette, writer!Marinette
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-12-21
Updated: 2015-12-21
Packaged: 2018-05-08 06:53:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,651
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5487806
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LittleMissWolfie/pseuds/LittleMissWolfie
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Marinette wrote stories about a hero she wanted to be. Adrien acted against his character to punish his dad. They were both missing something.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Of Black Cats and Ladybugs

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [This AU post](https://archiveofourown.org/external_works/163817) by tumblr user finalb0ssfight. 



> A few things that need to be noted:
> 
> -I took three years of really crappy French, and I will implement this knowledge whenever possible  
> -This is based off a post by finalb0ssfight.tumblr.com that asked for bad boy!Adrien and shy!writer!Mari  
> -I am NOT abandoning any of my other works for this. I'm in Ladybug Hell, so I need an outlet  
> -The whole 'tu' 'vous' thing is as follows: In French, the word 'tu' means a singular, familiar 'you.' Like if you mom wanted you to do something, she would use 'tu.' 'Vous' is both plural and formal. What Adrien is really saying here is 'Est ce que tu vas bien?' Normally, he would have used 'Est ce que vous vas bien?'

_ “Party’s over, Bubbler!” Ladybug pronounced, her gloved hands at rest of her hips. Chat Noir was crouched beside her, a feral grin stretched over his masked face. From below their perch, the kidnapped kids gave a loud cheer. _

_ The Bubbler had the gall to look betrayed. He whipped around to glare at the kids, his eyes narrowed and his lips twisted into a scowl. With a snarl, he whipped his bubble wand from the container and swiped, encasing each kid in a green bubble that floated out of the courtyard and into the air.  _

_ Screams of fear rang out even from inside the bubbles. While Ladybug cried out in anger, Chat Noir’s eyes narrowed. A single thought resonanted between the two heroes: The Bubbler had gone too far. _

With a small smile, Marinette pecked out the final period and ended the chapter. Posting chapters on her blog from her phone wasn’t the easiest way, but her laptop’s charger was broken and her parents had banned her from using the home computer for fear of her using up all of their memory. She was sure there were several spelling and grammar errors in the text, but she was already behind with her updates and she didn’t want the few people that followed her story to be disappointed. She wrote a quick author’s note apologizing for how long it had been since she updated and hit the post button just before the bell for the end of lunch rang. She jumped at the sound and gathered her books and notebooks so she could head to class. 

For the last month or so, Marinette Dupain-Cheng had been writing a story online. She’d created a blog and, under the name MariBug, posted a chapter a week about a superhero duo named Ladybug and Chat Noir. Her writing wasn’t super popular, but a few regulars made positive comments and left advice for her writing that she really appreciated. 

Ladybug was everything Marinette wanted to be. She was beautiful, athletic, and very, very popular. Meanwhile, Chat Noir represented her ideal friend: loyal, respectful, funny, and just a bit flirty. Together, they fought the evil Papillion and his wicked akuma to defend their home city of Paris.

Now, this kind of hobby wouldn’t usually be what someone could expect from a sixteen year old girl, but it wasn’t like she had much else to do besides help her parents out in their bakery. Her shyness had all but chased her classmates away from her, leaving her virtually friendless. Not that she really minded; this just gave her more time to write and do her homework.

_ Keep telling yourself that, Mari, _ she thought to herself as she rushed through the crowded halls of the school.  _ You might actually believe it soon. _

_ ___ _

As our dear Marinette was rushing to get to class on time, Adrien Agreste remained behind the school building, a cigarette held between his teeth. He didn’t really  _ like _ smoking, but it had become a routine so easily that he found he couldn’t stop. The smoking had originally been a jab at his father, just like the piercings, the tattoos, and the change in wardrobe.

On his sixteenth birthday, Adrien got fed up with his father’s emotional negligence. As pay back, he began smoking to ruin his teeth, got piercings and tattoos to mar his skin, and started ripping the sleeves off his shirts and cutting holes in his jeans. At one time, he was the golden boy. He had become the bad boy.

His results were mixed. On one hand, no one wanted him to model anything anymore and his father, while disapproving, had become a more constant presence in his life. On the other, his fangirls seemed to be even more stalker-ish than usual. Who knew so many girls had a thing for bad boys? The rest of his classmates, though, gave him a rather wide berth. Even Chloé, who hadn’t left him alone since they were five, had apparently decided he was too edgy for her anymore. 

He sighed, watching the puff of smoke that resulted from the action.  _ I have physics next,  _ he thought to himself.  _ I have an A in there. Should I bother going? _

The second warning bell rang, and he sighed again, dropping his cigarette to the grass at his feet and stomping it out.  _ Might as well _ , he shrugged to himself. His arm dangled and his hand curled around the strap of his backpack, then tensed his muscles and brought it up to sling it over his shoulder. Physics was his favorite subject, and it was one of the classes he didn’t mind participating in.  _ I’ll skip the rest of the day. _

His plan in mind, Adrien kicked the door open with his booted foot and slipped into the crowded hallway.

Marinette cursed her bad luck as she struggled through the diminishing crowd. Her locker had jammed, so she spent an extra minute and a half trying to wrench it open before she had to get a teacher to unlock it with their master key so she could get her physics book. Then she realized that the jam was because her favorite jacket had gotten caught in the door when she shut it earlier that morning, resulting in huge wrinkle in the pink material.  _ That jacket cost forty-one euros, _ she thought mournfully.  _ There goes a whole month’s allowance. Maybe I can see if I can babysit Manon… _

So consumed in her hopes of buying a replacement as she was, Marinette neglected to notice the very solid body that was in her path until she quite literally ran into it.  

Marinette bounced off the solid form and found herself falling. She closed her eyes and braced for the impact.

A hand wrapped itself around her waist, jerking her to a stop in mid air. The halt in movement was so sudden that it knocked the breath from her lungs and she lost her grip on her books and they fell to the floor. The other students in the hallway stopped to look at Marinette and her savior, and she felt her face heat up. Her eyelids lifted, and she opened her mouth to breathe in, intent on thanking them—

—and froze when she found herself looking into the greenest eyes she’d ever seen. Those green eyes were set in a handsome face and framed by golden hair.

_ Adrien fucking Agreste had saved her. _

A few years previous, Marinette had an embarrassing crush on him. When he suddenly started acting like a delinquent, though, with ear piercings and tattoo sleeves and ripped shirts, she found herself becoming disinterested. This was partially due to the fact that her perfect prince charming was suddenly not perfect, and partially because she didn’t want to upset her parents by involving herself with a person like him.  _ Like he’d involve himself with  _ me, she would find herself thinking. 

But now he was holding her close, with one arm around her waist and a hand on her back to ease her into an upright position. Her heart jumped into her throat, from nervousness or fear or both. The pressure of his touch was burning, even through her clothes, and the smell of cigarette smoke that clung to his jacket made her breath hitch. “Are you okay?” he was asking in that still-kind voice of his, though he asked it softly, like he didn’t want the other students to hear.

Marinette was a bit puzzled by his use of  _ tu. _ They weren’t particularly close, and now that they were in lycée most of the students used the more formal form  _ vous _ to address each other unless they were friends. While the familiarity would, in most cases, be considered rude, his tone threw that idea out the window. He was just worried.

Marinette nodded, numbly aware of the murmurs of the other students who surrounded them. “Yes, I am. T-thank you.”

He smiled, and it reached his eyes in the way it used to.. “No problem. Marinette, right?” When she nodded again, he stooped to retrieve her books. “You have physics next, right? We’re heading the same way, then. I’d better walk with you so you don’t have another collision.” Then he winked at her,  _ actually winked at her _ , and started walking without waiting for her reply so she had to jog to keep up with him and all her stuff.

___

Physics was just as bizarre as the passing period before it. By the time he and Marinette reached the classroom, there were only two seats left, and they were right next to each other. He’d smirked at her, making her flush all over once again and  _ she didn’t know why, goddammit. _

Then, she realized, to her horror, that Marinette had grabbed her biology text instead of her physics. Adrien seemed to realize this before she told him, so he scooted his desk over closer to hers, causing way more noise than was necessary and making the entire class turn around to glare (until they saw it was Adrien making the noise. Then they all quickly went back to minding their own business.). The teacher began instructing as soon as the final bell rang, and Adrien let his mind drift.

Marinette was cute. He’d forgotten all about her in the years since middle school, mostly because Alya, her loud best friend, had moved away, leaving the half-Chinese girl as quiet as a mouse. Her black hair looked almost blue when the light hit it just right, and that blue color matched the hue in her expressive eyes. When she blushed, it went from the roots of her hair beneath the collar of her shirt, making her freckles stand out even clearer against her skin. He wondered, unbidden, just how far that blush extended. 

She was interesting, he’d decided. He liked her.

Maybe she could make him  _ feel _ again.

**Author's Note:**

> Make sure to check me out on tumblr! My url is littlemisswolfie, and I'll take any questions you have! See you soon!


End file.
